Going over the falls
by dogbertcarroll
Summary: Grunckle Stan tests the portal machine, but opening cracks in the fabric of the universe often has unintentional consequences. A pair of familiar faces with an unusual goal slips through the cracks causing trouble for the Pine twins.
1. Chapter 1

**Going over the Falls**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Disney nor Gravity Falls**

"So in conclusion, I suck at cheering people up and I don't know the first thing about cheering up girls who aren't named Mabel," Dipper said, leaning against the Dusk 2 Dawn convenience store.

Tambry nodded, not looking up from her phone.

"Thanks for listening," he told her. "I thought I come here to be alone, but talking to you has really helped put things in perspective, you're a good… no a great listener!"

The corners of her mouth twitched and her cheeks darkened for a second, but she didn't stop texting or look up. "It helps if you try and look at things from the other person's point of view," she said after a minute, nearly giving Dipper a heart attack as he hadn't expected her to speak.

Dipper tilted his head to the side and looked up at the sunset. "That make a lot of sense, but I have a hard time seeing it from her point of view."

"The girl thing?" Tambry asked.

"No, Mabel has educated me on the subject, often against my will," he replied. "My problem is I just can't see anyone liking Robbie, he's a dick."

"Do you really think we'd be friends with a dick or that Wendy would like one?" Tambry asked thumbs never pausing in their work.

"I'll say no, but then I have met Robbie," Dipper admitted.

"Reverse the roles," she ordered, glancing up from her phone.

Dipper sighed and closed his eyes, trying to picture himself as the 'cool' guitar playing teen with the tight jeans.

***flash***

He spotted Wendy and began to smile before reminding himself that he had to play it cool, something that came naturally to him, when he spotted a new guy hanging around Wendy… and making her smile and laugh!

**Later…**

He'd tried to be casually dismissive, but that Dipper dude had pulled it out and saved his friends from the ghosts. If he was into puns he'd make a kindred spirits joke.

He'd have to step up his game, but what could he do? What did Wendy like?

**Still later…**

He raised his fists, but couldn't bring himself to hit the kid. He'd been hoping to scare him off Wendy, since he didn't have the common decency to back off himself now that they were dating, but the kid had pushed him and thrown his faults in his face. Did the little bastard have any idea how hard it was to control himself around Wendy? To not just follow his… He shook it off and concentrated on the now. The kid had let himself take one hell of a beating to keep that weird guy from trying to kill Robbie, not that he'd have been successful, but it was still impressive.

**And finally…**

He'd blown it, big time! He'd wanted to get Wendy alone so he could explain, but he'd screwed up. He couldn't ever get mad at the kid since the songs of he'd picked had turned out to have something funky hidden in it. Talk about bad luck…

***flash***

"I was the dick," Dipper said with a groan.

"Happens to all of us," Tambry told him, her eyes flicking up to meet his for a moment.

"Yeah, but now I have to go and get her to take him back, not to mention apologize for my part in the whole thing," Dipper said with a sigh.

"All part of growing up," she told him, "even for insane nine year olds."

Dipper laughed, she'd just been joking at the time but it had given him the drive he'd needed to save them from the ghosts. He still couldn't help saying, "I'm twelve though."

She didn't look up, just grinned for a moment and kept typing.

"I'll see you later, I have some… painful things to do and make up for. Bye!"

"Bye," she said as he left, a noise in the bushes, barely louder than the wind caused her to tilt her phone to the side and snap a quick shot, while hiding the fact that she'd noticed. Bringing the picture up she saw a touch of color in a dark shadow and what looked to be a gun in the figure's left hand.

She went over the last half hour in her hind while she continued to search the web on her phone, investigating pictures of crop circles a few towns over. She was pretty sure she hadn't let anything slip, certainly nothing that would anger Dipper's guardian angel, still she didn't breathe easy until she heard a rustle at the fence and the sound of an air cartridge firing followed by the snapping of twigs heading away from the store.

She wondered if Mabel knew what she had released, but quickly returned her attention to her phone and compared the number of times Wendy vanished during the day when she was with them and the temperature and humidity on those days. She had other puzzles to solve for the moment, the twins would have to wait.

**Typing by: Azuresky123**

**AN: Trying my hand in this fiction. Lots of in jokes and secrets, so unless you watch the show and actually study the extras you'll miss a lot.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Astronomy**

"What's on your mind short stuff?" Wendy asked, seeing how distracted Mabel was.

"What do you get someone who leaps off a forty foot cliff onto a thirty foot robot, to rescue you from a demented stalker?" she asked. "I'm thinking it's a bit more than a hand knitted sweater."

"Wendy grinned thinking it was a scene from Bare Chested Werewolf that she'd caught Mabel reading before. "Have his babies," she said firmly.

"What?!" Mabel stared at her wide eyed.

"Was he unarmed?" she asked, pretending to be serious.

"And kinda beat up," Mabel agreed.

"Babies, like half a dozen of them," Wendy said solemnly.

Mabel stared at her, while turning a shade of red normally not seen outside the produce section of the supermarket.

"True love always wins out, and nothing says love more than risking your life for another's happiness," Wendy said, enjoying teasing the inexperienced girl.

"I…I guess I'll get right on that," Mabel said stumbling off in a daze as most of her higher brain functions hit tilt.

Wendy held in her laughter until Mabel had left.

"Dude," Soos said shaking his head at her.

"What?" Wendy asked. "It was just some harmless teasing."

Soos took out his cell phone and pulled up a YouTube video for the red headed teen to watch. It was grainy and slightly out of focus, but she recognized the area. The clip played in utter silence and she didn't even need to see the first post underneath from Tambry saying 'That crazy little nine year old has a pair on him' to know who she was watching.

Wendy removed her fur lined cap and poured her water over her head before replacing it. "I think…I'm going to make myself scarce."

A strangled high pitched, "What?!" rang out from upstairs.

"Tell them I'm sick," Wendy said fleeing the shack.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Mabel," Dipper said as calmly as possible, trying to ignore the way his voice was cracking. "You're my sister, why are you trying to…"

"Get the little Dipper to show clearly during the daytime?" she offered.

"Yes, that," Dipper said nervously.

"I was talking to Wendy and she said I owe you a dozen children for what you did and true love always wins in the end so…"

Dipper blinked a few times and ran it through his Mabel filter, but it still didn't make sense, so he decided he'd deal with things as they were now and find out from Wendy what she'd said later. "True love… Mabel, I love you."

"You do?!" she asked in shock.

"You are my sister; I love you and yes it's true love. I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and god help me I'll love you tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that until the calendar runs out. However that doesn't mean I want to…" he trailed off awkwardly unable to find a way to say what he meant.

"Teach me astronomy?" Mabel offered.

"Exactly!" he exclaimed in relief. "We are twins, which means we are probably closer than most siblings, but I like the way we are and I never want that to change."

Mabel's eyes were watering as she held out her arms. "Awkward sibling hug?"

Dipper hugged her. "Awkward sibling hug," he agreed.

"Pat pat," they chorused as they finished their hugging ritual.

"But what do I do to say thank you for saving me from Gideon?" she asked.

"You saved my life not five minutes later," Dipper pointed out.

"Yeah, but I was also saving myself, so that doesn't count," she countered.

"How about you promise to never make another little Dipper comment ever again and we call it even?" Dipper offered.

"Deal," Mabel said as they shook on it. "Of course I'm lying when I say that, because it was all sorts of funny and no way can I just give that up."

Dipper groaned and Mabel giggled with both of them relieved things were back to normal, though Mabel's giggle was a trifle evil as she now had something new to tease him about when they were alone together and she wanted to make him blush.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Stan continued down the hall wiping his eyes with a handkerchief. "Damn allergies," he muttered, refusing to admit how touched he was. "You better be alright Stan," he said as he made sure no one was watching as he punched a code into the soda machine that caused it to move aside revealing stairs down into a hidden room filled with high tech equipment. The three books were laid out on a console together, forming a circuit diagram that looked half way between the blueprints for a spaceship and the archeological rubbings taken from an Inca pyramid.

Stan rechecked everything twice, going as far as rearranging the looks to make sure they only matched up the one way. A pile of gold bars and coins laid on a small metal platform off to one side. He added a few more coins to the pile while cursing the rising prices that necessitated him scrambling for every penny he could make so he could finish his work. "You damn well better appreciate this," he said as he prepared to test fire the machine using the oncoming storm as cover just in case he blew the transformer at the local power station… like he had the first time.

He ran a thumb along the fish symbol on his fez while he waited for the storm. He hoped everything went well; they had a lot riding on this, everything in fact.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The wind howled outside, rattling the window, while lightning flashed and Dipper knew he wouldn't be sleeping alone for long. As the thunder roared he heard the boards creak from Mabel's side of the room and held up the covers so she could climb in. Mabel wasn't scared of thunder and lighting, but Dipper used to be; he got over it years ago. Not that Mabel cared, when it stormed she climbed into his bed regardless. He'd asked about it once and she'd told him that it was in case of tornadoes, because she wasn't about to let him go to Oz alone. As far as quirks go, it was pretty adorable, and he couldn't bring himself to complain. It was the reason he was no longer afraid of storms in fact. Now storms made him feel warm and safe, like he was being hugged by his sleeping twin.

The sound of the closest door creaking open wasn't a welcome one, as the last time it happened the creature inside had eaten most of their summer-ween candy, but this time he saw Mabel step out of the closed and look wistfully towards him. Glancing down he saw that he was still being held by a sleeping sib, an exact duplicate for the one standing across the room. He held up the covers on the opposite side from the sleeping Mabel and she quickly climbed in.

"You're not going to ask?" the Mabel from the closet questioned.

"Nope," Dipper replied. He could think of a couple of reasons for there to be two Mabel's off the top of his head and none of them were really worth losing sleep over. "Night, sis."

"Night, bro," she whispered back, hugging him extra tight for a moment.

The sound of something crawling out from under the bed and urging Mabel to scoot over a minute later had him opening his eyes and seeing a duplicate of himself. This time he had to wake Mabel up to get her to give them a little more room, so he could climb into bed with them.

"You aren't going to ask why there are two of me?" Mabel asked.

"Are you going to ask why there are two of me?" he replied.

"Nope, night," Mabel said sleepily her head on his chest.

"Next time we'll push the beds together to make on huge bed," the other Mabel said.

"Night me, night yous," the second Dipper said.

"Night," everyone chorused. They all kept on ear cocked for another minute, but no new twins showed up so they all drifted off.

The twins held few secrets from each other and the few they did were either unimportant or a symbol of trust between them which they'd eventually share.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

A bald man in a futuristic jumpsuit cursed the twins while searching the ground for out of place litter. Picking up a candy wrapper he vanished in a burst of light.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Shmebulock!" cursed the gnome as he saw a circle of mushrooms burst into flame, a cold blue fire casting it's pale flickering radiance against the surrounding trees heedless of the wind and rain. The gnomes fled deep underground. Well, once Shmebulock managed to explain what was going on. It's not very easy to communicate when you can only say one word; fortunately he was a master at charades.

A hole opened in the air above the fairy circle and a pair of glowing blue figures floated out.

"Excellent work, as always," the young man with the slicked back hair, revealing a birthmark that looked like the big dipper on his forehead, complimented his companion. His sky blue suit and polished black shoes looked decidedly out of place in the primeval forest clearing.

"Of course, my dear," the young woman in a matching dress said. "I was trained by the best after all."

"Flatterer," he said with a smile.

**Morning…**

Dipper awoke as one of the Mabel's tried to sneak off.

"The other you is already gone," she offered.

"See you later?" he asked.

"Probably," she agreed with a guilty grin that said she was up to something Mabelish.

"Night, sis," he said, deciding to sleep for another hour.

"Night, bro," she whispered, sneaking off. He heard her mumble, "How did he sneak off without waking me anyways?"

He kept quiet; no way was he going to tell her she drooled in her sleep.

**Typing by: The Last Primarch!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Forest for the Trees**

"Wendy," Dipper said, causing her to freeze in place.

She'd known this was coming, but wasn't sure how to apologize, I mean, how exactly do you apologize for setting Mabel on someone?

Dipper had waited until Mabel was off doing something, Grunkle Stan was going over the books in his office and all the tourists were gone, to talk to her. It was just the two of them. Well, and Soos, but he didn't count. "What did you say to Mabel a couple of days ago?" Dipper asked.

Wendy winced. "I thought she was describing a scene from a romance novel she was reading. I mean, seriously, who has the balls to do what she described?"

"Dipper," Soos answered cheerfully, reminding them he was there.

"That was action movie insane," Wendy said. "I thought she was fantasizing about the main character in a book so I teased her a little."

"Oh," Dipper said in understanding. "The thing to remember about Mabel is that she always pays her debts and little things like sanity or reality tend to get pushed aside. If you do something nice for her, she will do something equally nice back, that's just the way she is."

"So, am I forgiven?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah, just don't let it happen again," Dipper said. "She has far too much fun teasing me and making me blush as it is."

"It's a big sister's job," Wendy said.

"Five minutes," Dipper grumbled as he left. "Five minutes isn't exactly older."

Once Dipper had left, Wendy turned to Soos. "Seriously though, I love my brothers dearly, annoying pests that they are, but if it had been be in that situation they'd be married to Gideon right now. I may have just been teasing but if someone had done that for me I'd be turning in my v-card minimum."

"The Pines rock," Soos said proudly. "Want to see a picture of Stan punching out a Pterodactyl to save Waddles?"

***Thump***

The two turned and saw a flash of pink, the exact shade of one of Mabel's sweaters in the heating vent and heard something scurrying off through the duct work.

"Please tell me that was a squirrel," Wendy begged.

"It was a squirrel, dude," Soos replied solemnly.

Wendy thumped her head on the counter. "I think my flu is coming back."

"At least this time you weren't telling her to have his babies," Soos offered cheerfully.

"Definitely relapsing," Wendy said. "I'm going to go hide erm, I mean rest for a few days, bye."

"And then there was one," Soos said taking her place behind the counter.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Dipper had just picked up his sandwich to take a bite when he was hugged from behind. It was a Mabel hug, but the intent felt different. Years of surprise hugs attacks from Mabel allowed him to read her hugs like they were highway billboards, but this one was…confused? "How about we talk about things over lunch instead of having a massively embarrassing moment with a side order of confusion?" he asked.

"Is that allowed?" Mabel asked, her hug taking on a relieved feel.

"I'll make you a PB&J," he offered just before Mabel bruised his ribs, unusually happy even for her. Searching the cabinets he found the raisins, honey, and powdered sugar needed to make a Mabel PB&J sandwich. He carefully cut it diagonally using a protractor to make sure it was exactly ninety degrees. It wasn't necessary, but he knew she found it funny when he did it. A quick glass of chocolate milk with triple syrup and he was done.

Mabel beamed at him and they both ate lunch and talked about inconsequential things until they'd finished and cleaned up after themselves.

"Ok, now what's wrong?" Dipper asked.

"I was listening to Wendy," Mabel began, causing Dipper to groan. "She didn't know I was there, she was talking to Soos," she explained.

"And?"

"And she said if she had been in that situation her brother would be married to Gideon now and that at the very least if she were me she would have given up her v-card."

"Ohhh," Dipper said playing for time as he figured out what to do.

"If you weren't my brother there wouldn't even be any hesitation," Mabel admitted.

"How about this," Dipper said. "I take your v-card."

Mabel nodded slowly, shocked that Dipper would agree so easily when even she was having a hard time with the idea and was really just using it to push him out of his safe zone and loosen up a bit to see if he'd stop being so distant. Mabel knew she had been a bit distant herself lately, but there were reasons.

"-and I give it back to you when you're eighteen," he finished.

"What?" she asked confused.

"You give the card to me and you don't get to give it to anyone until you're eighteen after I return it to you," he explained.

"What if I meet that special someone?" she asked, already planning out the design on her v-card, as she realized he was suggesting an actual physical card.

"If he can't wait until you're eighteen then he can't be all that special can he?" Dipper asked.

"You got a point," Mabel agreed. "Does this mean I get to hold your card?"

"Yes it does," he agreed, relieved he'd managed to derail the latest batch of insanity and trying to think of what would be acceptable as a v-card from him so she'd take it seriously and they could put the whole thing behind them.

"Sure you won't want it back while we're here?" she teased cheerfully.

"Mabe o' mine," he said seriously. "I don't think either of us is really ready for anything remotely like that anyway."

"I did just get my first kiss a little while ago," she agreed. "And so did you." She smiled as he groaned at the memory of Mermando and Dipper's reverse CPR.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The first card he'd gotten from Mabel looked like a credit card that had been cut into a right angle triangle and the V had one red arm and one purple arm and was strangely shaped. Of course the V was sparkly enough to light up the room as expected of Mabel.

The second card was a surprise and looked much the same except the V had a blue arm instead of a red one. Fitting the two pieces together formed one card with a red blue and purple M on it. In retrospect he should have expected something like that. He didn't know how Mabel had cloned herself, but the other Mabel was a lot more stable than Dipper's clones were. She also seemed to be left handed and was just a tad insecure requiring a little more attention and encouragement than Mabel did, of course he could be wrong and this was all a complicated Mabel thing he didn't understand, but he didn't think so.

"So got your v-card done yet?" Mabel asked curiously.

"I got it chipped out right, but Soos needs to get a new propane tank so I can finish it," Dipper replied.

"I can't wait to see it!" Mabel squealed.

"I did take a page from your book and actually thought about what it should look like and what to make it out of," Dipper admitted. "Plus the card I got from you kinda inspired me."

"Really?" She beamed.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I just needed to learn to chip stone without breaking it and find a couple of pre 1965 dimes."

"You put a lot of thought into it," Mabel said trying to figure out what it would look like, since it was obviously not going to be a plastic card like her's had been.

"Dude, I got the tank," Soos said. "Ready to fire it up?"

"Yeah," Dipper said taking a small leather pouch from around his neck. "Got it all right here."

"Are we sure the oil won't stain it?" Soos asked as the two headed towards Soos' workshop.

"Tested it on a couple of heated stones and it washed right off," Dipper assured him.

"Alright, let's do this!" Soos enthused.

"It was nearly two hours later that the pair exited Soos' shop to find Mabel practically bouncing off the walls.

"Is it done, is it done, is it done?" she begged.

Dipper held out his hand and Mabel extended a trembling hand palm up. Her squeal when Dipper dropped a hair clip into it drove Soos to his knees with his hands over his ears. "Make it stop!" Soos moaned.

It was a simple hair clip with a curved blue stone affixed to it that looked like half a heart that a V had carefully been chipped out of and filled with silver.

"It's beautiful!"

"Let's go see how they look in the mirror in our room," Dipper said holding up a second one.

She quickly drug him upstairs, where Mabel was also waiting for them and their matching squeals made him glad he'd thought to put in earplugs.

The two Mabels pushed the stones together forming a blue heart with a silver letter in it. "But you hate your name," Mabel said as the pair put the clips in their hair.

"No, I'd just prefer it was something else," Dipper said. "Anyway, if you can use the double V for an 'M' then I can use them too. I thought it was really cool the way you did that. I was planning to find a smooth river rock that I could chip a V into when I found that one and it all fell into place."

The two girls admired themselves in the mirror, having to take turns as it wouldn't reflect them both at once. Dipper noticed but didn't make a big deal about it. He'd read about Fetches in the Journal and there was something he was forgetting about them, but he could look it up later.

The Mabels hugged him from both sides and he could have sworn he heard a rib snap under the pressure. Fortunately it turned out to just be the pencil he had in his shirt pocket. "Everything on an even keel again?" Dipper asked.

"Keel?" Mabel asked while her otherself vanished into the closet, closing the door behind her, an oink telling everyone that Waddles was in there with her.

"Pirate mystery novel," he admitted.

"Yep, we're gold," she promised. "Now if you'll excuse me I must make up a dozen pirate euphemisms for things that I can use to embarrass you."

Dipper couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, we're good again. I'm going to go listen to BAB-erm, something manly with a friend."

"Have fun!" Mabel called out as he left. "Or I'll make you walk the plank? Too boring. Clean the poop deck? Ick, just no. I need a book with nautical terms, dang it!"

Dipper made a quick retreat.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Madelyn set aside her sketch pad as she sensed William, but a less focused, less controlled one. He had left the abandoned church they were staying in to get supplies and wouldn't be back for hours. Scrawling a quick note, in case William returned early, she followed the feel of his analogue. Intellectually she'd known that they had twins of themselves in other universes, but to actually meet one? The pull was irresistible. 'What would he be like?' she wondered. How much of her William would be in there? She had to find out!

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

A bald headed man slammed his palm against an advanced device that seemed to be malfunctioning. "This is all Waddles' fault! They claimed it was just a pig, but it carried an enormous amount of temporal energy and readings don't lie!"

**Typing by: The Last Primarch!**


	4. Chapter 4

**2 for 1 Sale**

Dipper looked around to make sure he was alone before opening the false tree and clicking the switch that opened the hidden trapdoor in the forest floor where he'd found the third journal. Reaching in he took out a bone spear, loincloth, and some clay paint. Feeling a little, ok a lot self-conscious, he stripped down, put on the loincloth and painted several primitive sigils on himself. Picking up the spear he took a few deep breaths and remembered what he'd been taught.

He felt lighter, stronger, more focused. He slid the new Babba CD into a pouch on his loincloth and reveled in the feeling of pure unbridled savage manliness! Moments later he was almost flying through the forest a primal beast on the prowl.

"Disco girl, coming through," he hummed to himself as the animals fled at his approach.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Madelyn stared frozen, her face a solid red. Whatever she'd expected to find, this hadn't been it. A brief thought of trying to convince her Will to dress that way flitted through her mind and she almost fell out of the tree she was hiding in. By the time she'd recovered he was gone and his mind blended in with the creatures of the forest too well for her to find him, so she returned to the church.

William found Madelyn working on a charcoal sketch of himself, but dressed (or rather undressed) in just a loincloth and carrying a spear. The markings on him seemed vaguely familiar, but the savage grin he wore sure wasn't. "You have a very vivid imagination," he said.

Madelyn's eyes glittered with amusement as she finished her work, not at all surprised by his sudden appearance as she'd felt his approach minutes ago. "This is from memory actually."

William saw the challenge in her eyes and immediately turned his attention to solving the riddle. Madelyn had seen him dressed that way, but he was absolutely sure he'd never done so. In fact, though he wasn't fat he was a little heavier than the figure in the sketch, who had muscles he knew he lacked. "You saw my local analogue?" he guessed.

Madelyn beamed at him. She loved watching him work out solutions to problems or puzzle out mysteries.

"He's got a bit of muscle on me," William admitted, while normally he'd never show any vulnerability and eradicate even a trace of weakness, with Madelyn he would share things that he wouldn't even share with father.

"He might be fun to get to know, but he's not the boy who spent half his life in an orphanage with me, nor convinced father to adopt us both," she reminded him.

"How could I leave behind my best friend, and the only person besides father to ever get me?" he asked.

Her smile lit up the room, the heart shaped stone in her headband glowed brightly as she radiated joy like the sun with her empathic talent.

"I got everything we need to locate the temporal energy we need and drain it," he told her. "Everything is proceeding as planned."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Are we sure Gideon is in jail?" Wendy asked.

"Last I checked, why?" Soos asked.

"Someone stole my moisturizer and I caught a flash of a familiar blue suit vanishing in the forest," she explained. "You know Gideon always stole my lotion."

"Why would he steal yours and not just buy his own?" Dipper asked. "He has the money for it."

"Special family recipe I learned from my mom," Wendy explained. "It's not commercially available."

"He did have really soft skin," Mabel said. "Almost old lady soft."

"And on that creepy note, he's still in jail," Dipper assured her. "He's hosting his show from prison right now and it's done live."

"I vote we lock Stan in his office, close the shack, and go out for pancakes," Wendy said.

"I second that motion and would like to add the addendum that we bring back some extras for Waddles, Grunkle Stan, and me!" Mabel said.

"Motion carries," Dipper said. "I'll get the wedges for his door."

"I got the hammer, dude," Soos offered.

Stan looked up from the third journal, that he'd disguised to look like one of his financial ledgers, at the sound of wedges being hammered into the edges of the door frame. "Blueberry with extra butter!" he yelled through the door, before returning to decrypting another section.

"Ok Grunkle Stan," Dipper yelled back.

"For pancakes!" Mabel cheered causing the other three to cheer back before they all charged outside and climbed in the golf-cart.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Mabel watched the four take off from her and Dipper's room. "Hope I remember to bring myself back pancakes," she said. "Come on Waddles let's go for a walk."

Waddles' snort seemed to say he was in favor of the idea so Mabel quickly grabbed her trusty anti-gnome shovel and the two set off.

"I know pigs are supposed to be able to sniff truffles, but who wants fungus? I say you should try and sniff buried treasure!" Mabel enthused.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"This way," William said holding up a turkey wishbone that was stained several different colors and covered in intricately carved symbols.

Madelyn followed wearing a bright smile. Everything was coming together and the risks they'd taken to get here were paying off.

William paused and eyed a freshly dug hole in the ground. "Strange," he muttered as they ran across several more.

"I believe I'm up ahead," Madelyn said curiously. "I can feel myself and… an echo?"

"I must admit I am curious as to what your analogue is like," William admitted.

"She feels wild and unfettered," Madelyn remarked. "Much like your analogue."

"Hmm," William said.

"You're thinking of me wearing nothing but a loincloth and some clay paint, aren't you?" she teased.

"Of course not," he replied. "You're also carrying a spear."

Madelyn blushed heavily, as he neatly turned her teasing around on her. They entered a clearing and found her analogue playing golf with a shovel, using gnomes as the golf balls.

"I said no!" Mabel yelled.

***Thunk***

A red capped figure bounced off two trees and stumbled around dizzily only to fall into a hole that Waddles had dug.

"Hole in one!" Mabel called out waving her shovel in the air, scaring off the dozen or so gnomes that weren't concussed or blinded by her hand knit orange and black sweater.

"This I did not expect," William admitted.

"Gid- Dipper?" Mabel asked confused. "Dipper why are you dressed like Gideon and why am I dressed… Actually, I look pretty good like that," she admitted.

Waddles sniffed at William's shoe and the turkey bone in his hand leapt to the pig's side like it was a magnet.

William smiled.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The bald man frowned as he saw the readings on his hand held device and cursed the twins for causing him even more work. If he didn't know better he could swear they were multiplying and so was their effects on the timeline despite his best efforts.

**Typing by: The Last Primarch!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Dead End**

"You look gorgeous like that," William agreed as he picked up Waddles and handed him to Madelyn. "But then you look good in so many things," he assured her as he took her free hand and kissed the back of it.

Mabel blushed and wondered if she'd gone just a tad too far in teasing Dipper lately, but had to admit he was pulling off suave a lot better than she expected and was it warm outside today?

"You look a bit tired," he said stroking her cheek.

"Uh huh," she agreed absently.

"Why don't you sit down," he said reasonably as he stared into her eyes, taking the shovel from her so she wouldn't drop it.

Mabel found herself yawning and sat down, a sleepy smile on her face as her eyes slowly closed.

Dipper stepped out of the bushes, the bag in his hand dropping to the ground as he saw what looked like Gideon holding a shovel and standing over an unconscious Mabel. He never even noticed the second Mabel holding Waddles as a red filter covered his vision.

The sudden surge of rage took the pair by surprise, the force of it actually making Madelyn stumble back as if struck.

William turned just in time to see Madelyn driven back in shock as Dipper approached in a rage, that he suddenly had no problem matching. "Get away from her!" the two yelled at each other as they attacked.

William's bolo tie lit up as he sent a wave of telekinetic force at Dipper, who stunned him by managing to push through it. Feeling Madelyn's distress and enraged at Dipper for assaulting her, his eyes glowed yellow and Dipper dropped limply to the ground.

"William!" Madelyn exclaimed in shock.

"I may have overreacted," he said regaining control over himself, "but he shouldn't have struck you."

"He didn't touch me, I was just shocked by the strength of his anger," Madelyn said quietly stroking Waddles to calm him.

William nodded, his anger gone. "We better go before-"

"Dipper!" Mabel screamed, grappling hook coming up to fire, the bright blue puppy on her sweater seeming to glare as well.

"Before your analogue awakens," William finished as Madelyn telekinetically shielded them.

The pair flew off as Mabel moved to stand guard over her downed brother, her other self still asleep against the tree behind her.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"I don't like seeing you being so hard on yourself," Madelyn said quietly. It was only partly a joke, and they both knew it; William was harder on himself than anyone.

"I thought he'd hurt you," William said quietly as they returned home.

"And he probably thought you'd harmed the local me," she told him.

"That…explains a lot," he told her after a moment's thought. "He broke my hold on him and forced me to use the stare. I was distracted and angry, so I wasn't at my best, but it was still impressive."

"How did he do that? I've seen you hold back an angry bear before."

"I don't know, but I know those symbols he had painted on himself in your sketch looked familiar. I'll look it up in my Journal after we get some breakfast."

"I have breakfast for me and Waddles," Madelyn said. "I'm not sure about you." She grinned.

"Waddles? And where…" he trailed off confused.

"His name is Waddles, because he's so fat!" Madelyn cheered hugging the pig. "And the other you brought pancakes for me and Waddles," she said cheerfully holding up a bag with two plastic containers of pancakes labeled M. Pines and Waddles with a little piggy face drawn under it.

William tried to keep a straight face, but as always Madelyn's antics drove away any negative feelings and caused a warmth in his chest that was the reason he called her his heart. "So they were adopted by father here as well."

"Do you think…" she trailed off.

"It wouldn't be 'our' father," William said. "Don't worry, we'll get him back, even if we have to change time itself to do it!"

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Mabel shook her other self awake once she was sure their evil twins were gone.

"What happened?" Mabel asked.

"I don't know," Mabel told her trying to wake Dipper. "You were down and then the evil Dipper did something to Dipper and he fell over. I tried to shoot them with our grappling hook, but they did that magic thing that Gideon did before we broke his magic pendant and then ran off."

"I thought it was you two dressed up for some reason," Mabel told her. "But the other Dipper was smooth. He kissed my hand and looked into my eyes…and I went to sleep."

"I don't know what's going on," Mabel admitted, shaking Dipper. "Wake up!"

"Let's get him inside," Mabel said pulling his arm over her shoulder while her otherself took his other side and they quickly carried him inside the Mystery Shack.

"I thought you were twins," Wendy said confused as she spotted the three.

"We are," the Mabels chorused.

"Dude, is he okay?" Soos asked worriedly.

"He was attacked by his evil twin," Mabel explained, "and now we can't wake him up."

"Evil twin?" Wendy asked, completely lost.

"They put me to sleep, stole Waddles and knocked out Dipper," Mabel explained.

"They hit him in the head?" Soos asked, checking for lumps.

"No, the other Dipper's eyes glowed gold, just like the Gremloblin that one time," Mabel explained. "Dipper dropped like his off switch had been flipped."

Soos winced. "That's bad, dude."

"Gremloblin, evil twins, extra Mabels… what is going on?" Wendy asked.

"You flake out and miss a lot," Mabel told her.

"Didn't Dipper put two people in comas by having them look into the Gremloblin's eyes?" Soos asked.

"They did that to themselves," Mabel said, defending Dipper. "He warned them!"

"So he's in a coma?" Wendy asked.

One of the Mabels clutched Dipper tightly. "Wake up!" she begged. "You've got to wake up!"

"We've got to go in after him," the other Mabel said. "Soos, do you remember the spell we used to enter Grunkel Stan's mind to fight the dream demon?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, dude," Soos said sadly. "A coma isn't a nap."

"I can't lose him, I just can't," Mabel said crying on Dipper's shoulder.

"I don't really have a choice here," Mabel said. "Look at how I'm falling apart. I need Dipper, it's that simple."

"If you're sure, dude," Soos reluctantly agreed with a sigh. "Let's use your room so we aren't interrupted."

Wendy watched the three, erm, four leave and put a hand on her forehead. "Maybe I have a fever and I'm hallucinating?" she said hopefully.

It took Mabel several minutes to get herself to stop crying so they could try the spell. She wasn't sure why her other self was falling apart when she wasn't, though she knew she was close to the edge herself.

"Randomus Latinus Wordus!" Soos chanted and in a flash of light they were standing…

"It's our house," Mabel said rubbing her temples as she remembered the events of the last couple of weeks from two points of view.

"It's the suburbs," Soos said nervously. "Tract homes freak me out."

"It doesn't normally look so colorless and dim," Mabel offered. The only spot of color in the area was from the overgrown lawn and bushes which didn't match the rest of her memories of home.

Soos looked up at the sun overhead. It was a dim red and pulsed weakly. "This isn't good, dude."

"What do we do now?" Mabel asked anxiously.

Soos blinked. "I see you pulled yourself together."

"Yeah, not sure why that happened," she admitted.

"It looked like you did one of those self-improvement things where you banish things you don't like and kill them in effigy, but you didn't use it that way."

"I just wanted two of me so I skipped that part of the ritual from the book," Mabel admitted. "Summon fetch, done!"

"Looks like an almost even split," Soos admitted eying the line that ran down the center of her face. "I think I read about it once and you're supposed to be split like a light and a dark clone, not just have one side with a little more red in her hair and one with a hint of blue."

Both Mabel's hands grabbed her hair and pulled it in front of her. "Ohh," she chorused with herself. "Sacrificing yourself is stupid, I like me, I'm awesome!"

Soos chuckled. "That you are, hambone. Well I read some of the page over Dipper's shoulder and I think you have to go to his favorite place to find him and convince him to wake up."

"His room," Mabel said leading Soos into a house so bland it gave him chills.

"Scary, dude," he muttered.

"I know," Mabel said quietly. "Everything in its place, decorated to the latest style. Thank god our rooms are exempt from that."

The hall leading to their room had black and white pictures of the twins dressed in matching outfits that really didn't suit them and their smiles were brittle, but Soos could see a small touch of color in each where they held each other's hand or had an arm around each other. There were two doors across from each other and Mabel tried to step in both directions at once before opening the door to the left. Everything was neat and tidy, there was a trophy case filled with scholastic honors covered in dust and a bookcase that was filled with books labeled with things like 'Dipper's guide to ironing,' 'Clues that Mabel is getting bored and about to do something entertaining and possibly dangerous', 'Pube check journal and comparative study on normal male development'.

Mabel reached for a book entitled 'Daily Mabel Maintenance and Weekly Checks for Summer', but Soos stopped her. "Not cool, dude. Those are private thoughts."

The building shuddered.

Her finger brushed a book entitled 'The Move' and she remembered when they were six and their parents moved Dipper into the room across the hall, upsetting both of them. She blinked and looked around the room noting tacks in strange places. Pulling a pair out of the bottom of his trophy case she watched it roll up like a poster showing a bare wall.

"It's all fake," Soos said in realization. "This isn't his room, it's just where he sleeps."

"I kept our bunk beds when they moved him across the hall," Mabel said. "He actually doesn't sleep in his room all that often."

"It's just a place to put his stuff," Soos said with a smile.

The room shook and a book fell off the bookcase falling open and showing their father placing a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "Now William," he said, stabbing Dipper in the chest. "Mabel is growing up." He sawed through Dipper's ribs and there was a harsh cracking noise as he pried Dipper's chest open. "She needs a chance to spread her wings and fly and she can't do that with you hanging around her all the time." The older man tried to cut into Dipper's heart but he was having a hard time doing it while holding his chest open. "It's for her sake. You wouldn't want to hurt her by holding her too close, would you?"

Dipper pulled his ribs open and held them there. "No Dad, I'll give her space."

"Good boy," he said slicing off a chunk of Dipper's heart and grinding it into the ground under his heel. "Remember, for her sake."

The memory faded and Soos shook his head. "We gotta find him now."

"I-I thought he was just tired of hanging out with me all the time," Mabel said softly.

"Dude, we gotta get moving."

Stepping into the hall Mabel spotted a trail of blood leading her from their room and down the hall.

"The rec room," Mabel said, leading the way down to the basement.

"The basement?" Soos asked.

"We take turns making each other watch things they hate," she joked. "Rom coms and boring mysteries."

She opened the door and Soos whistled. "You guys have a full theater."

Mabel stared at the big screen and rows of chairs. "What is this? It doesn't look this way in real life."

"Some place he cares a lot more than the room we just saw," Soos said. "This shows what it means to him."

A projector started up and a title came on screen, 'The End'.

"This is bad," Soos said as the screen began to bleed at the edges.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The bald man used a broom to sweep away a set of shoe prints when he felt a burst of hot moist air hit him. Turning he saw a T-Rex less than a foot from him. "Aggghh!" He quickly ran dragging the broom behind him so he wouldn't leave any tracks.

**Typing by: The Last Primarch!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Nothing is more powerful than…Mabel!**

"Dipper, help me!" Mabel called out on screen just as a giant pair of metal hands pulled the two apart.

Dipper was flung onto a cliff above hitting his head on a rock, Gideon's hateful words echoing in the air. He got up and headed to the forest with his head down, looking for all the world as if he'd been defeated. Then with a roar of rage he turned around and leapt off the cliff. It looked like suicide and by all rights it should have been, but the robot's head turned towards his scream and he dove head first through the armored glass covering the robot's eyes.

"Holy shit, dude!" Soos said in shock, not having seen it from this angle before and realizing exactly how far Dipper had jumped and the risk he had taken.

The scene inside the robot's head played out with the pair fighting and Dipper winning, but then Gideon's head came up and his eyes glowed a familiar gold color and things departed from the script. "If I can't have her no one will!" Gideon roared and squeezed his right hand shut. Mabel's voice yelling for help cut off like a switch had been thrown and Dipper fell to his knees. The cuts his father had made in his chest reopened and blood began to pour out. The blood turned darker and darker until it was pitch black and began to cover the screen itself.

"That's Dipper!" Mabel realized. "He's inside the screen!"

"We're too late," Soos said in horror as the screen began to bulge outward a slowly growing sphere of absolute darkness.

"No!" Mabel screamed and started forward, but Soos grabbed her. "The book says that's death, dude. We got to go!"

Mabel tore herself in two and the one with a slight bluish tint to her hair broke free and dove into the obsidian sphere.

"I hope that book is wrong," Soos said tightening his grip on Mabel who was being pulled towards the blackness by a silver cord connecting her to her otherself. "Pretend we're fishing!"

"What?!" Mabel stopped fighting to escape.

"Grab the line and reel them in!" Soos explained. "It said there was no coming back, but it said nothing about being pulled back!"

***Inside the Sphere***

Mabel would have screamed if she could have drawn breath but the blackness burned it was so cold and a multitude of small wounds were opening on her skin as she was assaulted by memory after memory of every rejection and insult she'd ever received, of every injury or time she'd felt stupid. Following the pain was a strange numbness that was even worse, taking away everything, good and bad alike. It took her a second to remember why she was there, floating in the dark and bleeding.

Casting about for Dipper she started to swim towards a glimmer of light in the darkness like a distant star. She knew where he was, now she just had to reach him. She instinctively knew the distance between them was a recent thing, caused by their listening to others about how they should behave rather than each other. Ignoring the bleeding and the cold she focused on her connection to him, the times they spent together and how much he meant to her. The distance between them rapidly shrunk. Ignoring the pull behind her she swam as hard as she could, slamming into him just before a section of the darkness, that seemed to be reaching for him, could take hold.

"Mine!" she screamed, glaring at it.

There seemed to be a hint of amusement from the surrounding darkness as it began to fade away.

"M-Mabel?" Dipper stuttered out weakly.

"It's me," she assured him as the pull behind them increased, her otherself hauling them out of the darkness.

"B-but I got you killed, I failed you!" he cried.

"That wasn't real, you saved me," she assured him. "Besides, it's our job to save ourselves and each other, we're twins remember?"

"Y-yeah," he agreed clutching her tightly.

There was a loud popping sound as Soos and Mabel gave one final heave and pulled the two out of the globe of darkness, causing it to pop like a soap bubble.

The pair was a mess, covered in blood and open wounds, shivering with ice flaking off them, but they were slowly healing as the ice melted.

"Back to reality, dudes," Soos said, clapping his hands and breaking the spell, relieved it was over. "Let's get you to bed, you need some actual sleep." He reached down to help Dipper up, only to be thrown back into the wall in a flash of blue light.

"The only way you'll take him is from my cold dead hands!" Mabel growled, glaring through tear stained eyes, holding Dipper tightly.

"Point taken," Soos said rubbing the back of his head.

"Let's tuck you both in Dipper's bed," Mabel told her otherself, realizing they were still not all there, as Dipper wasn't speaking, just holding his twin.

"Ok," Mabel agreed as her otherself helped the two to bed.

"You guys are seriously cold," Mabel told herself.

"Yeah," Mabel agreed as she snuggled into Dipper's side and he held her tightly.

Soos and Mabel closed the door behind them as they left.

"We better get back to work," Soos said. "Before Stan has a cow."

"And puts it on display," Mabel agreed able to push aside everything that happened recently, since her otherself was dealing with it and would be keeping Dipper safe.

"How'd it go?" Wendy asked.

"They're ok but exhausted, so it's just us today," Soos told her.

Mabel raised a hand and pointed at the closed sign, causing it to flip over.

"Are you possessed again?" Wendy asked nervously, trying to remember all the words to the Lamby Lamb song, just in case.

"No, just practicing for when I find who hurt my brother and stole my Waddles," Mabel said cheerfully before walking back to run her register.

"Dude, is it just me or was that even scarier because she smiled and looked cheerful while saying it?" Wendy asked.

"It's not just you, dude," Soos agreed.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Mabel reveled in the warmth she felt from Dipper, knowing he was alive and well. Feeling his breathing change she realized he'd woken up, though he also seemed content to lay there holding her as well. After a minute or so she could feel him start to reluctantly withdraw even though he hadn't moved yet. "I saw the memory of dad talking about giving me space," she told him, wincing at the pain the memory caused him.

"You did?" he asked confused.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Mom gave me a similar speech and encouraged me to have a summer romance and help you find a girl for yourself."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," she repeated, knowing he wasn't doubting her, but was just surprised.

"They probably read some trendy article about child raising and started manipulating us," Dipper said aloud as he thought about it.

Mabel sighed feeling his anger and disappointment mirrored in her own emotions. "First we were a status symbol to them and now we're a puzzle, but we aren't really people. I thought Mom was finally taking an interest in me as well, but she was just mimicking what she had read so she could ensure we would grow how they wanted, the perfect kids to show off to their circle of friends."

"I don't think we should go back there," Dipper said after a couple of minutes thinking it over.

"We have to," Mabel said with a sigh. "Sadly we are much too young to move out on our own."

"True, but all we have to do is act less than perfect and we could probably convince them to send us somewhere else," Dipper offered. "If we aren't trophy children we can be the perfect children by being away at some special school for gifted youngsters."

"Or here with Grunkle Stan while claiming that," Mabel said with a smile.

"We'll decide once we see how the summer goes," Dipper said. "Worse comes to worse we can at least blackmail them into ignoring us if we act perfect in public."

They laid there quietly just resting and enjoying being together.

"I have to see my friend in the woods," Dipper said suddenly.

Mabel tightened her grip on him. "Sorry, I'm not letting you go."

"Not now," he assured her. "Tomorrow."

"I may not be through holding you by then," she warned him. "I'm not sure when I'll be able to bring myself to move my arms from where they are right now."

"I'll carry you if I have to," he assured her. "I need advice and a way to protect myself from what that… Gideon version of me did. I couldn't protect myself from it and Waddles got taken."

"I know," Mabel agreed sadly. "But that's not your fault."

"It feels that way," Dipper shared with her. "But that's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because they took a member of our family, they took Waddles and we have to go get him back, and we will get him back, I promise!"

Mabel squeezed him tightly, a knot of fear and worry loosening in her chest as she heard the life and fire in Dipper's voice and she finally felt that things would get better and that she wouldn't lose him. As Mabel cried in relief Dipper simply held her and stroked her back, swearing to himself that the two fake Pines would pay for hurting her.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Nice trick kid," Stan said as Mabel floated cash to and from the cash register, as the tourists applauded the free magic act. "How'd you do it?"

"Magic jewelry," Mabel replied.

"Fine, keep your secrets," Stan said with a chuckled. "Just keep up the good work."

"Will do Grunkle Stan," Mabel replied. "I'm borrowing the master bathroom tonight; I have to bathe a pig."

"Just be sure to clean up after him," Stan said.

"I will," Mabel agreed.

"I thought they grabbed Waddles?" Soos asked once Stan had left as they closed up the Shack for the night.

"Wrong pig," Mabel said. "I'm also going to make him dress right. He's going to be wearing clean clothes if I have to dress him myself."

"You are like the bossy Mabel while the other one is the emotional one," Soos decided. "Except the split is almost even, so you are both the same or nearly so. So, why the big difference?"

"She's taking care of the emotional side of things, so I'm concentrating on the physical," Mabel explained. "I used to nag him a lot until our parents made me stop. But seriously, he needs someone to look after him and make sure he takes care of himself, so I'm back on the job!"

"Have fun, hambone, I'm off to roll around in my own filth as only a single man can!"

Mabel laughed and went upstairs so they could start cleaning up and restore the closeness they'd lost thanks to parental interference.

"I could use a shower," Dipper agreed, "but for that you'll have to let go of me."

"Wash around me," Mabel replied resolutely.

Dipper groaned but was distracted by Mabel levitating his dirty clothes into a laundry basket. "Mabel, when did you get psychic powers?"

"I spontaneously developed them to avoid touching your dirty laundry," Mabel replied.

"Really?"

Mabel pointed to her hair clip while the other Mabel giggled.

"The stone," Dipper said recognizing it.

"Your v-card has given us great power," Mabel teased.

"Shower and laundry, followed by dinner and bed," Mabel said.

Dipper tilted his head and regarded Mabel. "It's been months since you've taken an interest in my cleanliness."

"Mom made me stop, said it was mean of me and that it hurt your feelings," Mabel replied.

"Mom was full of it," Dipper said with a sigh.

"I think she was jealous that I mothered you more than she did," Mabel replied. "Regardless I'm pretty much throwing anything either of our parents said out the window."

"Not everything," Dipper said. "The no biting while we're arguing rule was a good one."

"You're just saying that because my braces give me an unfair advantage," Mabel said smugly while the other Mabel muffled her giggles against his chest.

"They had some good rules," Dipper admitted. "The problem is that we don't know which ones are good and which ones were made to trick us into being Stepford Children."

"We'll have to use common sense," Mabel told him.

"You don't have any common sense," Dipper teased with a grin.

"It's wrong too much," Mabel replied. "If you want the right answer you often have to find the wrong ones yourself first."

"You are making a scary amount of sense right now," Dipper told her.

"And I'm hardly common," Mabel said with a grin. "Now off to shower or I'll bite you!"

"Slave driver," Dipper replied with a smile, not realizing how much he'd missed her fussing over him. "No biting!" He grinned. "And I don't think you can carry me to the shower…although with two of you, you probably can. I'm outnumbered by my twin!"

Dipper and Mabel floated off the bed.

"Actually I can carry you to the shower myself," Mabel said not letting him go.

"No back shall go unscrubbed!" Mabel swore, following the two with a floating basket of laundry.

**The Next Day…**

Dipper awoke from an uneasy sleep. He'd come close to having nightmares several times, but the two Mabels holding him kept them from fully materializing. He tried to figure out how to slip out from between the two without waking them when the Mabel on the right's eyes opened.

"Thinking of going somewhere?" she asked.

"Bathroom," he replied.

"And?"

"And Grunkle Stan's office to make a copy of myself," he admitted. "I need him to cover for me so I can see my friend."

"Really?" Mabel said, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Just to cover at the Shack," he assured her. "I assumed you would be coming with me."

"Ok," she said, pacified.

"Except the bathroom, cause that would just be weird."

Mabel giggled. "Fine, but if you escape I'll find you."

"I know, I can feel you too," he agreed tapping his chest. They'd often gotten the odd feeling or hunch about one another before, but after she'd pulled him back from the icy grip of the abyss in his own mind it was no longer as haphazard and sporadic, it was a continual thing, like feeling the sun on your skin, you simply knew. He was sure it would feel invasive and embarrassing at times when they grew older, but for now it was a source of quiet comfort, letting him know his sib was alive and well and… dreaming of tacos?

Mabel helped untangle Dipper from herself and replaced him with a pillow that Mabel hugged tightly and drooled on. She ignored his amused grin as he gathered his clothes and started getting her stuff together as well. She'd just use Grunkle Stan's bathroom again while Dipper used theirs.

It was still early when they'd finished getting ready for the day so they met up in Grunkle Stan's office and Dipper used the copier to clone himself.

"Why don't you have the tree on your hat?" Mabel asked.

"No idea," the clone replied. "The copier never copies it.

"We should make a copy of you as well so the you here can get some more sleep," Dipper suggested.

"Dude, is it safe to take her… out there?" the clone asked.

"I'll have my spear and Mabel is pretty capable," Dipper pointed out.

"I just worry, sorry," the clone apologized looking ashamed but no less worried.

"I'll be careful," Mabel replied lying down on the copier. "Besides I'll have my grappling gun with me."

The copy of Mabel stood up and examined herself. "I just figured out why his hat is blank."

The three turned to her and she pointed to the rainbow on her sweater. "See the missing color? That one shade of blue doesn't copy."

Dipper took off his clone's hat and wrote a two on it. "I dub thee, Tyrone."

"Should I make more copies in case I get splashed?" Tyrone asked.

"Let's avoid another clone rebellion until we have Waddles back and we're rid of the evil twins," Dipper said.

"Ok, but we have to include Mabel in the next one," Tyrone said.

"Is there anything I need to know about being a clone?" clone-Mabel asked.

"Like the Wicked Witch of the West, avoid water," Tyrone told her.

"Gotcha," she agreed.

"Got your grappling hook?" Dipper asked.

"Right here," Mabel agreed patting her hips where she was wearing a hand knit holster for her grappling gun.

"Good, then we are off," Dipper said.

Mabel grabbed his hand. "Lead the way."

Once the two had left the two clones turned to each other.

"Clone war?" the chorused.

"You're on!" they agreed and fired up the copier.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

He cursed loudly as he arrived too late to prevent the child from taking apart the calculator and examining it. Pushing a button on his watch caused a robotic wolf to rush out and scare the child away, chasing him into the brush. He picked up the pieces of the calculator and hit the self-destruct on the wolf before vanishing into the time stream once more. The self-destruct, hastily assembled, failed to completely destroy the robot and the child examined the remains with interest.

**Typing by: The Last Primarch!**


	7. Chapter 7

**The Clone Wars!**

"You have to let go so I can change," Dipper told her, flipping the switch that opened the trap door where he hid his stuff in the forest.

"I can't let you go," she said shaking her head. "You almost left me behind, I can't risk it," she whispered tears in her voice.

He sat down and pulled her into his lap as she began to shake. They'd both been in death's grasp recently and yet that wasn't the worst wound they carried. "I'm sorry, but I didn't know I was leaving you behind... I thought I was going to join you."

Mabel buried her face in his chest and wailed. It was a good ten minutes before she was able to speak clearly enough to be understood, "Promise me if something happens to me you'll go on to live a long and happy life."

"Don't make me lie to you," he said burying his face in her hair. "If you die… I don't think I can go on, even the thought of it makes it hard to breathe. Maybe that'll change when we get older, but here and now where you go, I follow."

"Were… were you trying to kill yourself against Gideon's giant robot?" she asked quietly. "Because that's what it looked like in your memory."

"No, I just got so angry I couldn't see straight and the next thing I knew I was crashing through a window and beating the hell out of the little creep," Dipper admitted. "The same thing happened when I saw the evil version of me standing over you with a shovel."

Mabel hugged him tightly. "We really should do something about that, but I can't tell you how happy I am to find out you're not suicidal."

"I'm not, just occasionally homicidal when I think someone's hurt you or tries to take you from me," he promised. "Now hop off my lap and let go of my hand so I can change."

"Ok, but I'm not leaving," she said getting up and reluctantly releasing his hand.

"Fine, but no comments while I'm changing," he said taking off his shirt and opening the pot of clay paint.

Mabel waited until he'd changed into his loin cloth and closed the trap door before asking, "Can I make a comment now?"

"Yes," he agreed, hoping he wasn't blushing as much as he thought he was.

"We should get some pictures of you like this for the photo album," she said. "It looks cool!"

"Thanks," he said. "Now climb on my back, I gotta climb the highest mountain in the area and it'll go quicker if I carry you."

Mabel decided to humor him, sure he'd tire of carrying her in just a few minutes as she climbed on his back, but then she felt something wild and animalistic well up in his chest filling him full of energy and he... moved. The trees seemed to blur past as he ran, leaping over deadfalls and ducking under limbs as he sped through the forest with her on his back as if she weighed nothing.

Mabel was in shock, her _rules obeying, logic worshiping,_ brother had somehow turned into a wild beast running through the forest without a care in the world! For a moment it was frightening, but then she quickly regained her equilibrium and responded appropriately as he leapt a fifteen foot gorge as if it were nothing, "Whee!"

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Mabel awoke with a start, scanning the room for Dipper as she felt his pain, but the three Dippers she saw weren't him. "Where's Dipper?" she demanded worriedly.

"Off somewhere with our otherself," a Mabel clone replied, handing her a clean towel. "Take a hot shower, you'll feel better."

"Ok," she agreed with a heavy sigh, glad she was there to help him, even while she was here wishing she was with him as well, and worried about what they'd seen in his head. "Why do we have so many clones running around?"

"To cover for you two at the shack and because we need some fun," Dipper clone number five (according to his hat) told her.

"Got another one," a Mabel clone announced writing in a notebook. "Your brother doesn't like you picking out his clothes."

"That's a partial," Dipper number three said. "We don't like you picking out clothes you think would look _adorable_ on us, but we don't mind when you are picking out clothes you think would look _good_ on us."

"What's wrong with adorable?" another Mabel clone asked.

"It gets us in fights with other guys to prove we aren't girly and your friends tend to coo over us and then treat us like we're your sister," Dipper number three explained.

All the Mabels grinned guiltily.

"What?" the Dippers chorused suspiciously.

"That was kinda the point," Mabel admitted. "Unless you like having my friends flirt with you?"

"I…" Dipper clone number five's voice trailed off and the Dippers exchanged glances before he continued in a quiet voice, "It's kind of a tradeoff."

"Table it for now?" a Mabel clone asked.

"Yeah," the Dippers agreed.

"How many rules did you find were bull?" Mabel asked getting up.

"About thirty," one of the Mabels replied. "Some were rules that we made and screwed up ourselves with no help though."

"Like what?" Mabel asked getting her clean clothes out.

"We don't mind brushing your hair," Dipper number seven commented from the side.

"And we like to argue about who the killer could be before the big reveal," one of the Mabel clones admitted. "Watching you put together the facts and arguing about it is fun."

"The hair sniffing thing isn't weird," another Mabel said. "Unless it's Gideon."

"We don't mind dressing up and taking pictures with you," Dipper number five said. "But boy's clothes only and no makeup!"

Mabel nodded. "You guys keep at it, I'm going to shower." She began to smile as she felt her otherself cheer up and Dipper's mood jumped up at least a dozen points.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Madelyn left William arranging several carefully chosen crystals around Waddle's bed. He'd said they should put the pig in a cage so it wouldn't escape, but she'd given him a sad look and the next thing he knew he was helping make a tiny bed for the pig, putting him a bit behind schedule. In appreciation she'd offered to bring him breakfast while he worked on catching back up to where he had scheduled them to be.

Madelyn strolled into town, thankful their worlds were similar enough that their money was good here. Actually if you want to get technical it would count as counterfeit, but no test known could reveal that. She was trying to decide between getting more pancakes (they were that good) or buying some picnic supplies when she felt a vile disgusting presence approach her.

"Oh look, it's that poor little weird girl who has that pet that looks just like her," Pacifica sneered, her three sycophants laughing as expected. "At least you're dressed half way decent today. Did you sell that pig of yours to buy those rags?"

Madelyn turned to the group of popular girls and froze them with a look of disdain and a touch of her empathic abilities. "Oh look, it's the sad little girl who lacks the brains, personality, and innate humanity to actually make friends, so she surrounds herself with people who will make her feel good about herself to enjoy the presents her money buys. Do you know what they call people who accept money to make others feel good?" Madelyn asked rhetorically letting them figure it out for themselves as she put Pacifica in her place, just as she had at home. "Of course someone who buys company that way is known as a whore-monger, but they're just called Johns for short, so that's what I'm going to call you, John."

"I- I- " Pacifica stuttered unused to being talked to this way, having expected to simply shred Mabel's self-esteem and walk off as she had done to so many others'.

"Goodbye John, it was not nice seeing you," Madelyn said turning and walking off as if she wasn't worth wasting time on. Madelyn shivered in revulsion inside, letting none of it show. She hated dealing with people like that, not just because of how ugly their projected emotions were but because of how ugly her own became in response.

Needing something to take her mind off the ugliness she'd just experienced she spotted the arts and crafts store and smiled. A new project was just the thing to cheer her up. Seeing a Gideon doll in the window she paused and then chuckled. She had no idea who that was supposed to be, but he dressed nicely and gave her an idea on just what to do for her project.

She decided to get pancakes and buy some picnic supplies for lunch as well, seeing how it was a nice day.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"We're here," Dipper said, setting Mabel down.

Mabel tackled him in a hug. "That was awesome! That was better than riding horseback!"

Dipper smiled feeling the joy his twin radiated like a roaring bonfire. "I learned it from the Manotaurs, but it was Multibear who taught me how to improve on it."

"Multibear?" Mabel asked.

"One of the most fearsome creatures I've ever met. The Manotaurs wanted me to kill him as my final test to become a man, but I couldn't do it. Multibear is a great guy and we have the same taste in music so he's become my mentor," Dipper explained.

A roar shook the cave and a twelve foot tall mountain of a creature, that looked to be made of a dozen bears rolled into one, attacked.

Mabel froze in fear but quickly recovered as she felt a fierce joy from Dipper as he ran at the terrifying creature with a roar of his own. The pair fought scattering bones and gouging stone until Dipper had it pinned with a blade at its throat.

The pair stared at each other, teeth bared and then began to laugh.

"That was a good fight, but why the big presentation?" Dipper asked, hopping down.

"I thought we'd put on a show for your mate," Multibear replied from his main head, the smaller circle of heads on his torso grumbled softly, some dozing off.

"Mate?" Dipper asked, before blushing down to his toes. "She's my sister!"

"So? Is that one of those human things?" the bear asked.

Mabel grinned. "We share a cave and I make sure he eats and stays clean, so I guess I am his mate, at least until he's older and chooses another for the position."

"Ahh an intelligent and practical mate," the bear said in approval. "So what brings you by with your mate?"

Dipper decided not to argue, Multibear didn't really understand human morality and Mabel was amused.

"I've kinda gone berserk a couple of times," Dipper explained. "And… there is a weakness I need to overcome."

Multibear nodded and gestured further into the cave with one of its many paws. "Sounds like something to discuss over tea."

"And cookies," Dipper added nodding in agreement.

The Multibear had mugs the size of pitchers which took a little getting used to, but each cookie was the size of Mabel's head, and made with plenty of sugar as the bear had a sweet tooth, so Mabel declared him a friend for life.

The story slowly came out with some pauses to explain things to Multibear who, while wise in the ways of nature, didn't understand humans all that well.

"Going berserk is natural," the Multibear told him. "If someone attacks or steals your mate, naturally you'll go berserk."

"We haven't mated," Dipper tries to explain.

"Of course not," the Multibear waved it off. "Neither of you are old enough or in season and you may choose others to be your mates when the season comes upon you and it's time to have cubs, but for now she is your mate and you'll respond as such."

"Oh," Dipper said suddenly understanding what the Multibear meant when he said mate and how it differed from the human term, though roommate was a part of it.

"The Wyld affects everyone differently. I learned to tap the Wyld when I was old and grey," Multibear explained. "It's how I became what I am, instead of an ordinary bear. The Manotaurs were normal lumberjacks, before one learned the secret and taught it to the others. You were well on your way to transforming into one when you spared my life and chose a different path."

"I'm going to transform?!" Dipper exclaimed.

"Is that a problem?" Multibear asked.

"No offense, but you don't exactly blend in with the people of Gravity Falls," Mabel said, while trying to calm Dipper.

"I'm a bear, I chose to look this way," Multibear explained.

"And the Manotaurs?" Dipper asked.

"Chose their own form or followed the path of those that did," Multibear explained.

"So his eventual transformation is up to him," Mabel said in understanding.

Multibear nodded his main head. "He may not even visibly change if he chooses not to, it all depends on him and what he desires."

"That's a relief," Dipper said expelling a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Today I will show you how to tap even deeper into the Wyld so you can practice, while I explain to your mate how to prevent you going berserk and how she can snap you out of it," Multibear explained. "But first… Karaoke!"

"Karaoke?!" Mabel exclaimed. "I love Karaoke!"

"Do you know the words to the latest Babba single?" the Multibear asked eagerly.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"You've lost a few stripes on that rainbow," Soos pointed out to Mabel. "You also look a bit pale."

"I think we're running low on toner," Mabel admitted, before walking off leaving a confused Soos to scratch his head.

"Am I seeing things or does Dipper keep changing numbered hats?" Wendy asked Soos.

"I'm not sure," Soos said. "Maybe we should sit on him and squeeze the truth out of him!"

Wendy stared at Soos.

"OK, I've been watching one of those CSI shows," he admitted.

"Not a bad idea though," Wendy noted.

"You hide in the closet and I'll grab Dipper and push him in there so you can interrogate him!" Soos said excitedly.

"You are way too into this," Wendy said with a chuckle as Soos pushed her into a closet.

It only took a minute for the door to open and Dipper wearing a blue cap marked number four got shoved into the closet. "Wendy?" he asked in confusion.

"Me and Soos were curious about the numbered caps," Wendy said.

Before Dipper could reply the door opened and a Dipper with a number nine on his cap was shoved inside. "There is a perfectly good explanation for this," he offered.

A third Dipper was shoved inside followed by a fourth just a moment later.

"I have a lot more questions now," Wendy admitted as another Dipper was shoved inside and it got a little crowded.

By the time Soos opened the door to push in the tenth Dipper the internal pressure was enough that they almost exploded out of the closet, burying Soos in a landslide of Dippers.

"And here I thought you kept escaping," Soos said once everyone climbed off him.

"No, you kept catching different Dippers," number five said.

A bunch of Mabels, missing increasingly larger sections of the rainbow on her sweater, each grabbed a Dipper and zoomed out of sight through expert use of grappling gun and a complete disregard for closed windows.

"I think I just got to second base with a dozen Dippers," Wendy said in shock. "He's more muscular than he looks."

A piece of broken glass fell to the floor.

"I better start fixing windows," Soos decided, still at a loss for what was going on.

"Yeah probably a good idea," she agreed. "I'm going to go get a drink of water and think about some things."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

A Mabel wearing a plain white sweater sighed.

"I'll go see if Grunkle Stan has some more toner," Dipper eighteen volunteered, only to return a minute later with a frown and no toner. "He said he'll order more."

"We've got enough," the rainbowless Mabel decided.

"We've got at least thirty clones paired up and armed at the edge of the woods," Dipper eighteen agreed.

**Half an hour later…**

William glanced outside as the forest ran red with fleeing gnomes. He wasn't sure what was going on until he spotted their twins chasing them… multiple pairs of their twins. He quickly reached out with his mind and concentrated on making the church seem a lot more decrepit and dangerous than it was so they'd all avoid it.

Several clones ran afoul of puddles or streams and melted, while a number of clones reached out for power their current bodies couldn't handle and exploded into confetti. It made the battle strangely festive. A half dozen clones were left standing in the end, yelling at the retreating gnomes.

From what William could understand the gnomes had tried to kidnap Madelyn's analogue so the twins had organized this as a show of force. William listened carefully, while maintaining the illusion surrounding the church, to see what he could pick up, about the pair. His one run in with them hadn't gone as well as he'd have liked and he was sure he'd be seeing them again since he had their pig, Waddles.

He didn't learn much before the clones left and he sensed Madelyn approaching, but as he turned to greet her he noticed she was a bit crispy about the edges and smelled of smoke.

"Most of downtown is on fire and it's not my fault," she told him earnestly.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Blendin Blandin groaned as an alarm went off and quickly checked his hand held device. "I hate the Pines!" he growled, rushing off to set off a dozen fire alarms five minutes in the past.

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**

**TN: I kept waiting for a number one joke, but he never 'made it so'.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Clan of the Multibear**

Dipper was tired and feeling more than a little rung out by the time they were finished with training for the day.

"Looks like you're gonna have to ride me," Mabel said, frowning when he didn't even notice the teasing and just held out his arms. "Is there a waterfall nearby?" she asked the Multibear.

"Just over that way," the bear said, gesturing with half a dozen paws.

"Thanks, MB!" Mabel called out leading Dipper off. "We are going to rinse you off before I pick you up; you are covered in sweat!"

"Ok," he agreed, happy to turn over all the decision making duties to Mabel while he just enjoyed doing nothing strenuous for a moment.

Mabel smiled at the trust he was unknowingly radiated at her, it almost made her feel guilty for what she was planning. They reached the waterfall, a beautiful thirty foot shower of ice cold water that emptied into a large pool of pristine snow melt. Mabel grinned evilly and pushed her sweaty brother into the water and found herself being pulled in as well by her equally evilly grinning twin who had a good grip on her sweater.

*** Splash! ***

"Cold!" the pair squealed before they turned on one another and began splashing each other with a great deal of laughter and enthusiasm.

**Half an hour later...**

"Ok, I can't feel my toes," Dipper said. "I concede defeat."

Mabel sloshed out of the water, her waterlogged sweater probably doubling her weight. "I am a master at Splashy-Fu!"

"You are wearing a lot more than I am," Dipper countered.

"Not for long," Mabel said and began taking off her soaked clothing.

"Mabel!"

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You can't just strip in the middle of the forest!"

"I can," she assured him proceeding to do just that. "Relax, it's just us here. Thanks to your v-card and the Multibear's tips, I can sense people and trust me we are the only humans within miles."

"Fine, but next time we bring swimsuits," he said firmly.

Mabel blessed the noonday sun and large flat rocks as she finished spreading everything out to dry. "We never cared about changing in front of each other, but the last year you started acting like it was a big deal. What gives? I know it's not shyness, which is what I guessed before I could feel your emotions."

"Dad-" he began and they both sighed. "Ok, yet another parental rule," he admitted. "Dad said girls who let boys see them naked get certain reputations and while I may not like people talking about me, I get really upset when I hear anyone disrespecting you."

"And we both know how people are," Mabel agreed. "Fine that rule isn't completely wrong. We will pretend to follow that rule in public but in private, I don't want to even pretend it exists."

Dipper nodded and laid his loincloth on a rock. "As long as we're careful."

"Dipper!" Mabel Gasped. "We've discovered the fountain of youth!" She pointed at his crotch. "You've regressed to two years old!"

He rolled his eyes and grinned before saying, "Then why did you double in breast size?"

"Double in..." She looked down and saw her nipples were sticking out because of the cold. "You know, this means war!" she said with a grin, before tackling him into the pool.

It was a couple minutes later, while tapping into the Wyld to keep from freezing, that he accidentally upped the ante by sending a veritable tidal wave of water over Mabel.

Once she resurfaced she grinned mischievously at Dipper who began to get nervous as she just stood there. "Um... Sorry?" he offered.

Mabel pointed up.

Dipper looked up and froze. Mabel had diverted part of the falls so the water collected into a huge ball directly overhead. She was about to drop a swimming pool on him! He dove deep under the water just before it hit, creating a splash so big it was probably visible on Google Earth.

"I surrender!" Dipper yelled as he resurfaced.

"Whoo!" she cheered throwing up her arms. "Now let's get out and dry off, because I am freezing here!"

"Our clothes probably aren't dry..." his voice trailed off.

"What?" Mabel said before turning and seeing that her last attack had washed away their clothes. "Oops!"

"This could be a problem," Dipper said.

"You have clean and dry clothes hidden near home," she pointed out. "I however am going to have to be ninja sneaky."

Dipper found his loin cloth caught on his spear which, along with Mabel's grappling gun, had been too heavy to wash away. "Put this on."

Mabel put on his loin cloth and picked up his spear. She quickly struck a pose. "We are so bringing a camera next time!"

Dipper laughed and traded her grappling gun for his spear. "Our photo album that we couldn't show to anyone."

"Ok, new plan. You climb on my back and we take the quick way down, because I am not going to be naked in the forest, where there are gnomes, any longer than I have to be," she said firmly.

"Quick way?" he asked climbing on her back.

"You like Spiderman, right?" she asked aiming her grappling gun at a tree hanging over a cliff.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"Mabel, are you ok?" Soos asked noting the smoke rising from her.

"Yes, I'm fine," Mabel assured him, putting out a sleeve that was smoldering. "And just so you know 'fighting fire with fire,' not really effective. Fun though."

"You guys are my witnesses," the Mabel clone behind the counter said after Mabel had left," we were here in plain view the entire time!"

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The time anomaly officer cursed the twins as he bandaged his burnt hand. It had taken a lot of work to disable nearby cameras and make sure there were no reliable witnesses in the area.

"Anyone seen my Prius?" a voice in the crowd asked and Blenden sighed as he spotted the car in a tree. More work when he'd been hoping for a break!

"Those blasted kids!" He couldn't take much more of this.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Mabel washed the smell of smoke away and privately admitted she may have overreacted a bit. "Nah!" she decided as she got dressed in unsinged clothing and returned to her room.

Dipper entered the room a few seconds later and opened the window. "Where's the camera?" he asked.

Mabel smiled at the feel of his emotions and quickly handed him the camera off her dresser. A grappling hook latched onto a ceiling beam and Mabel swung in wearing only a loincloth with a huge smile on her face.

*** Flash ***

"Ack!" Mabel, blinded by the camera flash, lost control and crashed into Dipper's bed.

"Are you ok?" Dipper asked concerned.

"Never mind that," Mabel said retracting the grappling hook and brushing her hair out of her face. "Did the picture turn out good?"

Mabel checked the camera while Dipper checked the other Mabel. "Looks cool," she declared. "So why am I only wearing a loincloth?"

Mabel grinned at her. "We have had the best day! Half of the stuff I still don't believe and I lived through it!"

"And how was your day?" Dipper asked giving Mabel a hug.

"Ran into my evil twin, set the town on fire, you know, the usual," she said casually.

Mabel and Dipper just stared at her.

"I am awful at trying to be nonchalant," Mabel said once she'd recovered. "I always thought I was better than that."

"Nope, you are obvious, sis," Dipper replied. "So... What happened?"

"I ran into my evil twin and I remember how they almost took you from me and did take Waddles and I got so mad... that I ... tried to hit her with a car," Mabel admitted ashamed.

"How did you end up driving a car?" Dipper asked.

"Drive?" Mabel gave a nervous smile. "I kinda... threw it."

"We threw a car?!" Mabel asked wide eyed.

"It was a compact," she offered.

"And then?" Dipper asked.

"I was ranting about how they almost killed you and it turns out if we get mad enough we can throw fire," she admitted.

"Mabel," Dipper said softly hating to see her down and feeling how much she hurt. He quickly wrapped her in a hug that her otherself joined as well.

"Dipper's not suicidal, just homicidal when it comes to us," Mabel explained. "The whole dying thing was because he thought we were dead and it was killing him."

"I feel better and worse now," Mabel said, thinking she may have overreacted.

"Yes but the important thing is... do we have a solid alibi?" Mabel asked.

Dipper groaned. "You've spent too much time around Grunkle Stan."

"Copier clones have been keeping busy and visible," Mabel assured her. "There was an incident with about a dozen Dippers in the closet with Wendy, but our clones bugged out with him before anyone could notice."

"I... what?" Dipper asked confused about how he should feel.

"She's too old for you and it will never work," Mabel told him seriously.

"Mabel!" the other Mabel exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Mom's advice was crap, he's not ready to date an older girl, and I'm not ready to share him with a girlfriend," Mabel explained to her otherself.

"No complaints?" she asked Dipper, surprised he didn't seem upset.

"No, you're right," Dipper admitted. "Look at what a mess I made of things, I'm not ready and I'll probably be better off dating someone my own age first anyway."

"Ok," Mabel said with a relieved smile.

"Why were you in town?" Mabel asked, going to the dresser to pick out clothes to wear.

"I went to the arts and crafts store," Mabel explained. "See, I had this idea for a new sweater."

"Yeah?" Mabel asked curiously.

"Think tandem bike," she hinted.

"Sweater town!" Mabel said with an artistic gleam.

"A three person sweater for when we want to hide out," Mabel agreed. "Our own little world to hide out in."

"That's the coolest idea ever!" Mabel squealed.

"You guys have fun with that, I'm going to go replace Tyrone for closing, since that involves cleaning and he'd melt using glass cleaner," Dipper said giving both of his sister a hug.

One the door had closed behind him, Mabel turned to Mabel. "There's a lot I have to tell you! But it may be faster to show you, if MB's trick for synching his heads up works for us."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Dipper ran through various things he could say to try and explain why there had been a bunch of him running around today and why they had been in a closet with Wendy, but gave up when he realized he really had no idea what had happened or why and the clone that had given him the rundown was equally in the dark.

"Dipper?" Wendy said surprising him.

"Ye-ah?" he replied voice cracking.

"I'm...erm apologizing for molesting like a dozen of your clones," she replied. "I thought they were you." She frowned as she realized that hadn't come out right.

Dipper blushed heavily. "I appreciate you telling me that," he said slowly, "but I think we're better off as friends. I'm not really ready to date yet and you deserve someone with similar interests, who gets you. I like hanging out with you, but only as a friend. I hope that's alright."

"That's... cool," Wendy said slowly looking a bit confused and dispirited.

"That went well," Dipper decided once Wendy had left.

"Huh," Grunkle Stan said on spotting him. "I was going to say you were looking pale today, but you've got a lot more color in your cheeks now."

"It's been a good day," Dipper said.

"Glad to hear it, kid," Grunkle Stan said cheerfully.

**Everybody loves Tambry**

"Dipper broke up with me," Wendy told Tambry, which actually caused her to stop texting in shock.

"I wasn't aware you were dating," she said trying to keep her voice even.

"We weren't," Wendy replied.

"Ok, I'm confused," Tambry admitted.

"You aren't the only one," Wendy replied. "See, it's like this, I ended up stuck in a closet with him in pretty tight quarters. Don't ask why. Later I apologized for us being pressed up against each other like that because it was my fault. He said we were better off as friends and that he just wasn't ready to date yet."

"Ok," Tambry said slowly, forcing down a smile. "So, what's the problem?"

"The problem is it actually hurt more to break up with him, even though we weren't dating, than it has been to break up with most of the boyfriends I've had," she admitted.

"And?" Tambry asked, closing her browser tab on bat subspecies and checking the sheriff's report on an apple tree being picked clean by a giant yellow and pink bat thing.

"And I'm beginning to wonder if he's not more mature than I am, he's certainly more mature than most of the guys I've dated and maybe I shouldn't date anyone for a while," Wendy explained.

"He is something," Tambry admitted.

"Thanks for listening," Wendy said pulling Tambry into her lap and giving her a big hug, careful not to interrupt her phone use.

"You aren't this huggy with your boyfriends," Tambry said leaning into her.

"They'd take it as an invitation for more," Wendy replied. "You at least know I don't mean anything sexual by it."

"People often only see what they want to see," Tambry explained.

"Don't I know it," Wendy agreed feeling better about things. "You are like the world's best Teddy Bear. I'm calling you Tambry Bear from now on."

Tambry rolled her eyes but was unable to stop herself from laughing.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Blendin checked to make sure he wasn't being monitored as he finished assembling the device and snuck into the hospital. The other agents had heard his threats and made sure he was unable to prevent the conception of the twins who'd made so much trouble for him, but after they were born they were fair game!

**Research**

William looked at Madelyn's sketch of his analogue and examined the markings that were painted on him. Madelyn had a good eye, being an artist, but she hadn't been concentrating on copying the symbols so while he could use them as a base for his search he wouldn't rely on them being one hundred percent correct. It took nearly half an hour of paging through his journal and copying symbols to find what he was looking for, but after comparing the markings he was almost certain his analogue was undergoing the ceremony to become a-

"Werewolf," Madelyn said as she read the paper. "Take a look at this." She handed him the Gravity Falls Gossiper and the ad for the Mystery Shack showed a picture of William's analogue being billed as the pre-teen wolfboy dressed in a costume that wouldn't fool anyone with two brain cells to rub together.

"Brilliant," William said. "If anyone even suspects he actually is a werewolf one look at that ad would have them doubting it and trying to claim he was would get them laughed out of town."

"It also explains where he got the strength to break free," she added.

"That's one mystery solved," William said with satisfaction.

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**

**TN: hands hurt...**


	9. Chapter 9

**Going of the the Falls 9: Endgame**

William stared at the glowing crystal in shock.

"Was it supposed to charge that fast?" Madelyn asked.

"No, somehow little waddles here just multiplied his temporal output by an order of magnitude."

"Well he's just such a smart pig, yes he is," Madelyn cooed.

William chuckled. "Well regardless we can return him to his Madelyn and return home now; we have more than enough temporal energy to prevent father's death."

"Ok, but my other self is a tad homicidal," she warned him.

"Let me do the talking," William said.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"I'm not eating dinner unless you're eating with me," Dipper said putting his foot down.

"I will be," Mabel said.

"All of you," Dipper said. "I don't want you having to eat alone or skip meals."

"But I can do both at once," Mabel pointed out.

"I may eat alone but I'm also eating with you," the other Mabel added.

"Don't care," Dipper said. "I can't eat without you and that means all of you."

"We are so sappy," Mabel complained as her other self hugged him.

"We aren't being too clingy are we?" Dipper asked nervously, still conflicted about everything.

"No, we're fine, Mabel assured him, ignoring the self that was hugging him. "How are we going to explain this to Grunkle Stan?"

"We aren't," Dipper said cheerfully.

"What?" the two Mabels chorused.

"We don't explain anything, we just pretend it's always been this way and let him make up his own reason for why he never noticed," Dipper explained.

"Are you sure that will work?" Mabel asked.

"What's he going to do, claim there is only one of you when you are both there?" Dipper asked. "If he does that we'll just claim he's seeing things."

"It would be nice not to have to sneak around, if a bit more boring," Mabel admitted.

"Sneak around anyway," Dipper replied. "Ninja practice is always fun."

"I'm sold," Mabel agreed.

"Good, then let's go eat dinner," Dipper said.

Stan looked up from the stew he was making surprised to see two Mabels, one of which clung to Dipper's hand and looked a little nervous.

Dipper met his eyes and Stan swallowed whatever he was going to ask, not sure how he could play off being ignorant of the unusual happenings in the town if he confronted them and rather proud of the kid for challenging him.

"Dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes, set the table for four, Soos is going to be joining us," Stan said returning to cooking.

"Ok, Grunkle Stan," Dipper agreed relieved it had worked.

The three were in high spirits when the doorbell rang.

"I've got it," Dipper said, as Mabel raced him to the front door, barely beating him there. Opening the door his face gained an ugly scowl. "You!" he growled out.

"We've come with a pig and an apology," his own voice spoke quickly from the face of his doppelgänger.

Dipper's eyes glowed a baleful golden color as he glared at the boy who had almost separated him from his twin.

"What—" Madelyn began when she saw Dipper's eyes.

"Don't look!" William yelled spinning around to hold his suddenly shivering twin.

Everyone present flinched back from an empathic blast of pain and loss as Madelyn broke down in tears.

"I'm here, it's ok, I'm here," William said holding her close, whispering gently in her ear.

"Oh god!" Dipper moaned eyes returning to their familiar brown as his anger vanished. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

"Give us a minute," William ordered. "It's ok," he told Madelyn gently. "I'm still here, I still love you. I'm not going anywhere." He kissed her tenderly and the pain and loss she was projecting slowly faded replaced by love and joy that took the watchers' breath away.

"Is she going to be ok?" Dipper asked concerned.

Madelyn waved him to silence not releasing William until she needed to breathe.

Dipper and both Mabels stared at the couple in shock.

"When you used that on Dipper it almost killed him," Mabel said taking Dipper's hand.

"You have a heart condition?" William asked concerned, still a little breathless from the kiss.

"He thought I was dead and tried to follow me," Mabel chorused with herself.

"I love him, but he has some issues," Mabel admitted.

"Says the girl who actually challenged death for me and pulled me back," Dipper replied.

"What's yours is mine," Mabel said. "Any issues you got I'm sharing the subscription costs."

"I apologize," William said. "I thought you'd struck my Madelyn and I lost my temper, it should have made you pass out at most. And may I say I'm impressed? It took me years of careful training by father to learn that technique."

"I'm sorry as well, I didn't mean to use it on you," he apologized to Madelyn.

"If it gets him to kiss me like that again, feel free to use it whenever you like," Madelyn purred happily.

"Madelyn!" William groaned.

"You are much too controlled, love," she told him.

"I wasn't trained really," Dipper said. "I had to hunt down a pack of gremloblins and stare them down one by one."

"So what's your story?" Mabel asked as her other self reclaimed Waddles, who was wearing a cute little blue suit, and radiated her own blast of positive emotions.

"You clearly aren't us, but you are," Dipper said.

"We used a faery gate to hop timelines in search of temporal energy so we could go back in time and save our father," William explained. "Waddles leaks temporal energy which meant he could give us the power we needed. We have what we need now so we came to apologize and return him."

"How did we end up..." Mabel trailed off exchanging glances with her other self. "Dating our brother," the other Mabel finished. Mabel was never one to ignore an elephant in a room.

Madelyn laughed. "Our worlds are very different. William is my adopted brother and he's only that because he refused to be adopted without me. You three no doubt have a much different background. I'm guessing you were adopted much earlier than we were, since you seem to have a sibling bond from what I can tell."

"Zeus Pines sensed my psychic potential while he was searching for a heir," William explained. "We were already six years old at that point and best friends, despite the fact that the nuns at the orphanage kept us segregated by sex. We've known we were meant to be together since we first laid eyes on one another."

"How'd you end up at the orphanage?" Dipper asked.

"A terrorist set off a bomb at the hospital we were born in," William explained. "I was lucky they managed to read my first name from my partially intact medical chart. Madelyn's was so far gone all they got was the first two letters of her name. They had to guess the rest and we were both labelled as Doe until father adopted us into the Pine family."

"You are multiplying!" a deranged voice screamed, fading into sight as the chameleon circuit on his coveralls failed once more.

"Blendin Blanden?" Dipper and Mabel chorused.

"Weren't you taken away by the time cops?" Mabel asked.

"All because of you!" he ranted. "But I fixed you, or at least I thought I had. I placed a bomb in the hospital to kill you all off... but, but you're still here and now there's more of you! All that jumping you did protected you from erasure!"

"Who?" William asked as he began to piece things together.

"Rogue time agent," Dipper said making the same connections.

"He's the reason you're not us," Mabel told Madelyn.

"I had a twin?" she asked softly, horrified at having a twin sister who'd been murdered by the bald headed man in front of them.

"Yes, no," the mabels chorused realizing Madelyn had drawn the wrong conclusion. "I'm not touching that one," they decided as they followed the Multibear's tips on how to synch with one another, becoming one though still in two bodies.

"You killed my sister!" Madelyne yelled beginning to draw up a tsunami of psychic power.

Blenden pulled a tuning fork and slammed it against a tree.

Madelyn screamed as her amulet shattered and the feedback knocked her unconscious. Both Mabels grabbed their heads as their own shattered, but not having been using it as heavily they weren't knocked out. William flinched as his shattered, but otherwise looked unconcerned.

"The amulets made it easier, but they weren't the source of our power," William said coldly, turning to deal with the threat.

"You think I don't know that?!" the deranged bald man shouted. "Psi-dampeners!" he yelled hitting a button on his watch and causing a series of poles to rise up from the ground and shoot out cross bars, encasing everyone but Waddles in a pair of cages. "I control time, I've had forever to set this all up!" he shouted.

The Mabels helped Madelyn up and were whispering something to one another.

Dipper and William tested the bars of their cage and found they were too close together to fit through.

"I'm at a loss," William admitted. "Do you have any aces to pull out?"

"I can't think of one," Dipper admitted.

"And now for you!" Blendin said pulling a ray gun out of his pocket. "I've got you now Waddles! Your tether to this time period is about to be cut!"

"No!" the girls screamed from their cage.

William stepped back from Dipper sensing something. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously, goosebumps running across his exposed flesh.

"I promised Mabel we would get him back... that he'd be ok," Dipper growled his hair taking on a course texture almost like bristles, his teeth enlarging slowly. "I've never broken a promise to her."

"Trapped with a werewolf, joy," William deadpanned backing away as far as the cage allowed.

"And I won't start now!" Dipper yelled his clothes tearing as he transformed into... a small pink pig.

William watched in disbelief as Dipper squeezed his much smaller body through the bars and leapt in front of waddles just as Blandin fired.

Mabel let out a heart broken scream as he was hit by the bright yellow beam and vanished, but her otherself slapped her, startling her into silence. "He has his time travel device on him, we get that we can rescue, Dipper!

"Synch with us," Mabel ordered Madelyn, tears in her eyes as she held out an arm. Joining hands in a triangle, the three slowly began to combine their power, causing a high pitched whine to come from hidden high tech equipment beginning to strain to contain them.

"You're stressing the dampeners!" Blendin yelled as something started letting out a high pitched whine. "Do you know how much those cost?!"

"Put it on our bill!" the Mabels yelled as one.

The cage and the girls inside vanished in a burst of light that was actually dimmer than the blinding triangular fountain of power the girls had drawn up. "I prepared for that too!" Blendin bragged. "Their bodies are scattered through at least a century, good luck coming back from that!"

William sighed. "I really wish it hadn't come to this."

"What?" Blendin asked confused. "Ah, you. What? Are you going to change into a pig too?"

"In a manner of speaking," William agreed. "But just to be sure, you caused our timeline by attempting to murder us and did kill our parents?"

"Yes, but you deserved it!"

"Then yes, I am going to turn into a pig," William agreed with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You see, father will understand and I'll be with Madelyn again, the rest doesn't matter."

"What? What are you talking about?!" Blendin demanded.

William pulled a glowing sphere out of his pocket. "I have the ultimate reset button a ball of temporal energy."

"B-but that'll just put us in an infinite loop," Blendin said in horror. "We'll be trapped repeating the same roles forever!"

"Psychic," William reminded him, with a smirk.

"You'll get flashes of the previous past and future," Blendin said in understanding. "You'll be able to alter things to break free eventually."

"This time loop will be a noose around your neck," William agreed. "And I'm going to kick out the chair now. Be seeing you."

"No!" Blenden screamed turning to fire only to go down in a heap as Waddles sank his teeth into his Achilles tendon, his eyes showing human intelligence.

"Be you later, Dipper," William said smashing the sphere on the ground.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Dipper woke as the bus hit a pothole. He yawned and stretched for a minute before flipping up the arm on the seat in between him and Mabel. Putting an arm around her she snuggled into his side and smiled in her sleep. for some reason he felt a lot more optimistic about how the summer was going to go. He slowly dozed off as the bus continued its long trip to Oregon.

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**

**TN: Don't you hate timeloops?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Omake - Wendy's prank**

"Fights a giant robot, makes you jewelry, and always chooses you over anyone else?" Wendy asked, trying her best to sound impressed. "I would do things to him that are illegal in Georgia."

"He has done a lot for me," Mabel admitted with a thoughtful look in her eye.

— **Ten minutes later —**

Dipper marched up to Wendy, lipstick marks scattered across his face, rope burns on his wrists. "This is revenge for breaking you and Robbie up, isn't it?"

"Little bit," Wendy admitted.

"Ohh, Dipper!" Mabel called out.

"You haven't seen me, I was never here!" Dipper exclaimed running off.

"Little bit?" Soos asked.

"Mostly it's just because it's funny," she admitted.

**Omake - Untangling the timeline.**

"So, you attempting to cause an alternate timeline was ineffective because of all the time jumping we did-," Dipper began his voice a bit garbled as he had become a pig and lacked human vocal chords.

"Which would explain why they didn't set guards on me," Blendin figured out. "Nothing I did could affect your timeline from before you started jumping."

"And we are from that alternate possibility," William said. "The probability lines were skewed enough to allow us to move into realized space using a faerie circle."

"Which shouldn't be possible without a major rip in space-time being opened without the outer boundaries being set!" Blendin groused.

"I transformed into a pig to save Waddles, which turns out to be my future self sent back in time and a bit scrambled from traveling that way," Dipper-Waddles reasoned.

"Quantum entanglement," Blendin said. "Used on anyone else they'd have ended up scattered over a decade."

"Mabel, Madelyn, and their fetch have become an insane psionic entity -" William began.

"Known as the demon Bill Cipher," Dipper-Waddles agreed. "As scrambled as I was, I only had one set of memories and personality to deal with, they have it a lot worse."

"And now I'll use this orb of pilfered temporal energy to reset the timeline," William said. "This would normally cause a temporal loop that would repeat endless, however, being psychic, both myself and Madelyn receive information from outside the current timeline, meaning we'll eventually resolve the loop in our favor."

"And you are going to become me, who becomes waddles..." Dipper-Waddles trailed off.

"And Madelyn will become Mabel, who becomes Bill, a being composed of both of them and their fetch," William agreed.

"But they're back in time," Dipper-Waddles pointed out.

"Yes, just as you are," William pointed out. "Bill is currently floating around Gravity Falls somewhere."

"I'm here!" Bill Cipher announced, appearing in a flash of light with a pen in one hand and a diagram in the other. "And I'm as confused as you guys are."

"Does this mean we end up as Waddles and Bill or do we cease to be them to resolve the timeline?" Dipper-Waddles asked.

"Well..." William shrugged. "No idea. Does it matter?"

"Becoming a pig was never one of my life's goals," Dipper-Waddles said dryly.

"So change back," William replied.

"It's not that simple," Dipper-Waddles said with a sigh.

"Have you tried?"

"Well, no," Dipper-Waddles admitted, he sighed and closed his eyes, concentrating on being human again. He slowly shifted forms, obviously straining as he took on an upright posture, losing animalistic qualities until he shouted in triumph, human once more, "Woot!" He danced a jig.

"Shake it baby!" Bill called out before blushing bright red and slapping both hands over where her mouth would be if she had one.

"And now we know how to turn Bill back into the Pines Triplets," William said. "And puberty is going to be kind to me except in the facial hair department."

"Pardon?" the naked Dipper, who'd aged to his late teens asked, too engrossed in being human again to notice his lack of clothes, asked.

"Just do a couple of Jumping Jacks," William said.

"What? No!" Bill exclaimed as Dipper did as requested and she broke apart into several identical women in their mid twenties.

"Someone give me some ones!" Madelyn shouted.

"She's you," one Mabel told the other. "I'm the demon clone."

"No she's you, I'm the demon clone," the other argued both of them embarrassed beyond belief.

"Does this mean the timeline's restored?" Blendin asked.

In a flash of light five Pines showed up, three Mabels and two Dippers, all blond with blue eyes. "We are the five in one," they said in chorus.

"Screw this," William said slamming the ball of time against the bars of his cage releasing the temporal energy.

The five Pines laughed and one of the Dippers took off his wig revealing regular brown hair as the timeline faded. "Man, I had no sense of humor back then."

**Typing by: Stephenopolos**


End file.
